


A Pale Clydesdale

by EmeraldHeiress



Series: How Dangerous (A Mask Can Be) [18]
Category: Batman (Comics), Batman - All Media Types, Red Hood and the Outlaws (Comics), Red Hood/Arsenal (Comics), Red Hood: Lost Days
Genre: Dick Grayson Needs a Hug, Don't copy to another site, Gen, Jason Todd Has Issues, Jason Todd Needs A Hug, Protective Bruce Wayne, Protective Dick Grayson, Suicidal Thoughts, suicidal behavior
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2020-09-26
Packaged: 2021-03-08 04:07:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 357
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26659435
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmeraldHeiress/pseuds/EmeraldHeiress
Summary: Sometimes Dick worries his brother is going to crawl back into his grave.
Relationships: Dick Grayson & Jason Todd
Series: How Dangerous (A Mask Can Be) [18]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1932781
Comments: 19
Kudos: 355





	A Pale Clydesdale

The night was freezing but he wouldn’t move from his perch; wouldn’t take his eyes off the ever-too-still figure crouched beneath the concrete angel.

Dick hated these days — days, evenings, nights spent in silent vigil as Jason decided if he was going to live or die again. Moments in suspended terror, hoping with every fiber of his being that it wouldn’t be the one time Jason chose differently.

The days when his demons were thunderous and savage. Lashing out at everything around him and everything inside of him.

The nights when his little brother curled up over his grave and almost _willed himself_ back in. Desperate for peace, perhaps. An end to the rage and grief.

They were some of the worst moments of Dick’s life but he wouldn’t change a second of them as long as he walked away with all of his brothers left. 

As long as he walked away with _Jason_.

Thunder rolled as lightning cracked across the sky and the figure on the earth below didn’t so much as twitch.

Dick’s heart stuck in his throat.

It was that type of night, then. Where Jason was buried so far in his head, reliving who knew what, that he wouldn’t surface for hours. Even then, he might have to be nudged. Gently, of course. Damian shook him once.

 _Once_.

Never again.

Red Robin’s voice crackled over the commlink, “Nightwing, we need you at 34th and Cross. B says —” 

“No can do, Red.”

“ ‘Wing?”

“Got a cardinal under an angel tonight.”

The whole family knew what that meant.

Tim’s reply was a soft, barely there. “ _Oh_.”

“Nightwing.” Batman’s smooth baritone rang over the link. “Keep him safe.”

“You know it, B.”

He closed the link. 

Dick wished, not for the first time and likely not the last, that Jason would come home. That he wasn’t reduced to watching his little brother tear himself apart from afar. That he could help instead of silently keeping watch… hoping that today would not be the day that Jason decided to crawl back into his grave.

Dick _wished_.

What was the saying?

_If wishes were horses, beggars would ride._


End file.
